OOC: Any change of plans for watch? Anything else to do before I move on with Ralden's watch?

Ralden eventually nodded his head and sheathed his dagger. "Fine, I'll keep an eye on them and see if things change." With that he let the elf try to get some rest. Now alone he poked the fire to keep it active and tried to focus on those who were incapacitated.

OOC: We can move on.

Leyna tries to get some rest, even if it's just closing her eyes and relaxing her muscles.

The night passes slowly. Anticipation and worry are heavy on the minds of everyone, waking or not. Shadows flicker throughout the commons room of the Smiling Spirit while outside the weather waxes and wanes but does not relent.

Ralden remains vigilant. A few times he thinks maybe the pallor of Urvan's face is shifting, but further study seems merely to be a trick of the lightning. Similarly, he thinks maybe he spies glints of movement from the corner of his eyes or from behind some furniture, but ultimately there is nothing there when looks more closely.

About halfway through his shift, the wooly rhino yelps and collapses to the floor with a thud. With a start, Ralden springs to investigate. Again, he thinks he sees movement on the floor but is unable to pinpoint anything. The rhino bears a now familiar mark on its leg, though it's already quite large compared to Alonder's wound and those of Rebecca and Urvan when they were first discovered. The rhino's muscles stiffen and its condition soon mirrors Urvan's. It seems conscious but unable to do much more than simply breath laboriously.

The racket wakes Leyna, Alonder, Valgard, and surprisingly even Iceman. Groggily the veteran warrior grumbles with his eyes still closed, "What's with the racket?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:27, Wed 31 May 2023.

Leyna sits up. She scowls.

"An external threat, then," she says once Ralden updates everyone. "Not an infection. We are being hunted. The question becomes, 'why can we not detect it?'"

She stands and goes to the kitchen. She finds a sack of flour or cornmeal or any other dry and powdery baking material. Opening the bag, she grabs a handful and begins to scatter it about. She tries to dust every surface that's visible from the hearth, taking care to avoid the fire in the hearth since flour is flammable. She dusts Urvan and his rhino. Then, for good measure, she takes a handful and throws it in the air all around her to see if it lands or collects on anything.

"We must all keep watch," she says. "Look for trails or movement in the dust. Throw a handful of flour at any movement you think you see."

"In better news, and don't ask me why I'm responding better to the venom, but I seem to be slowly recovering movement. My limbs are still completely numb, but my neck is less stiff and I can wiggle my shoulders if I try. You'll have to keep watch over me a bit longer, sorry for the trouble."

The first part of the watch ended smoothly. Sure, the fire caused shadows to dance but Ralden was used to the odd movement of shadows. The cry ruined that illusion. In a second the warden drew his blade and approached the rhino as he looked for the source of the beast's distress. The familiar wound quickly revealed what had happened.

"We brought in the animals from the storm," he explained when he heard the others stir. "It seems likely the ooze creature that attacked earlier is still around. Urvan's rhino was attacked and has a wound similar to Urvan and Rebecca." He shifted the creature so the others could see the wound.

As Alonder stirred he let out a sigh of relief. "That's good to hear. Unfortunately Rebecca's wound grew more severe and she passed on during Leyna's watch. Probably killed the former resident too."

With the group informed Ralden took a handful of the flour Leyna discovered and examined the room.

There is enough flour to make quite a mess of the place. With the entire room covered, you find it difficult to believe that much of anything could wander through without causing some noticeable disturbance.

"Good thinking," Iceman comments at Leyna's plan. The warrior had been double-checking that Einaar was ok and resituating the resting arrangements to be more tightly concentrated together. "Anything tries to come up on us, we'll be ready. It'll be a long night, but hopefully also a quiet one."

OOC: Some of you have only had 90 minutes of rest this evening. It's also still several hours until dawn.

1. Do you have any other preparations to make?
2. Am I correct that the plan now is for everyone to stay awake and all keep watch together?

OOC: Alonder will sleep, hoping to recover as fast as possible. Staying awake to keep watch is a marginal benefit, and if everyone is gonna be on edge the correct teamplay is to recover ASAP to be able to assist when everyone else is tired.

For a long time after setting down, Leyna's plan seems to have been wasted time. Flour covering everything leaves the place looking almost like a blizzard had entered the commons room rather than just rain. Most folks are able to nod off after a while for some much needed rest.

Leyna's primary plan was the locate a threat and neutralize it.

But if they can deter the threat, so that the team can get some rest and recover without being eaten alive, then that's a success too.

She sleeps, and trusts the others to keep watch in turn.

Eventually the others nodded off until only Ralden continued to stand watch. His tired eyes scanned the room until finally his watch was ended. Before he could wake the next person to stand guard he noted a whole in their "flour" trap. He followed the opening until he finally spotted the puddle.

Ralden slowly drew his blade as he tried to quietly approach the enemy. When he was close enough he lashed out with his sword in an attempt to damage it. "The creature is back!" He shouted to the others.


OOC:
18:11, Today: Ralden rolled 18 using 1d20+3 with rolls of 15.  Short Sword Attack.
18:12, Today: Ralden rolled 4 using 1d6+2 with rolls of 2.  Short Sword Damage.

OOC: Considering this the initiation of combat. Ralden wins initiative so the following is a first round.

Ralden's quickness and skill brings a measure of success. The creature was apparently not expecting the attack to be so swift and fierce and it silently recoils as Ralden's blade cuts into it. Instinctively, it retaliates but Ralden's reflexes save him for now from its dangerous touch.

Already on edge and sleeping lightly, everyone else is awoken by Ralden's battle cry and everyone that is able to bolts up ready to respond, their weapons within easy reach.

OOC: Everyone else can join the battle starting in round 2 after Ralden and the puddle act once more. Ralden and the puddle are engaged on the far side of the room while everyone else is gathered together near the fire.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:08, Tue 06 June 2023.

OOC: Is Alonder's condition better, worse or the same?

Slightly better than before, maybe an inch more of feeling, but sadly Alonder is still unable to effectively use limbs.

Leyna awakes with a start. Her head is pounding. It takes her a moment to focus on the action and collect her wits. She watches Ralden thrust and parry with his short sword as her muscles tense for action.

Ralden felt a brief moment of relief as the puddle recoiled from his blade strike. Even though the creature looked like a liquid perhaps he stood a chance of slaying it. The warden ducked under a tendril the creature shot out before he swung his short sword once more.

OOC:
Spent a luck point to reroll my attack.
14:37, Today: Ralden rolled 10,8 using 1d20+3,1d6+2 with rolls of 7,6.  Short Sword Attack/Damage.
14:38, Today: Ralden rolled 21 using 1d20+3 with rolls of 18.  Spend Luck Point to reroll attack.

Ralden sees his blade cutting deeply into the puddle and flecks of transparent puddle goo fling across the wall. Still, the creature emits no noise to indicate if it feels pain. Its actions, however, now indicate a clear desire for self preservation. More quickly than one might imagine, the puddle slinks away from Ralden, climbing through a crack where the window nearby was not perfectly boarded, and escapes into the storm.

OOC: If anyone wants to give chase, I'll continue with rounds. Otherwise, the combat is effectively over at this point. You can blame Ralden being awesome for the rest of you not getting a chance to act :P

"Well done, Ralden!" Leyna cheers.

Leyna jumps up and rushes over to see if it's possible to pursue the puddle or if it's camouflage in the storm is so complete that it would be a fool's errand to do so. Having dried out, she has little desire to go get soaked again.

Lenya is pretty sure that the puddle would be quite invisible outside and indeed decides that only a fool would attempt to locate the creature in such conditions.

Leyna looks around the room and does her best to patch up any holes that would make it easy for a vengeful puddle to return. Granted, there are still holes in the ceiling that are likely beyond repair, but she'll at least make the puddle work for it's next meal.

Leyna is no craftswoman, but she also knows that the puddle can probably only apply a limited amount of force. Even if she can't make actual repairs, she'll block holes or stuff them with whatever's handy.

"Puddles probably hate salt, right?" she says to nobody in particular. Now that she's stomped around a bit, she'll reinforce the flour trap with a layer of salt (if the pantry has salt in sufficient quantities).

Then she heads back to bed.

The warden raised his blade to strike again when the creature retreated. Ralden chased the creature to the crack where the puddle easily squeezed through and escaped into the storm. He grunted in frustration but finally sheathed his blade.

When he noticed Leyna's tactic he nodded in agreement. He gathered any fabric he could and tried to cover any potential openings in the doorways. "Put an extra lair of the salt on the staircase and around the fireplace. I can't think of a good way to completely cut those off." He sighed as he looked at the others. "Hopefully having been forced to retreat it will give up on hounding us."

His watch having effectively come to an end he nodded to the person who would next be on lookout.

Adequately plugging the holes is a painstakingly process. There are numerous gaps through which the puddle could slip, and the materials to do the job correctly are sparce. Still, with tenacity and teamwork the group completes the task satisfactorily. The time goes more quickly with the feeling of victory at the puddle's last appearance.

Iceman takes the next watch and the others are grateful for the much needed rest. They succumb to their dreams quickly and welcome oblivion. In the blink of an eye, Iceman is shaking you each awake. Alonder finds that control over his muscles has increased to the point where he can move his entire upper body and control his bladder and bowels but not much else below the waist. Leyna and Ralden are groggy and it takes several minutes for them to blink open their eyes.

Urvan and the rhino simply do not wake; his injuries having taken their toll in a similar manner to Rebecca's. Iceman explains, "Our hunter was clever, but ultimately reckless. I noticed the puddle latched onto Urvan about an hour ago. It came not from the windows or cracks in the wall, but I surmise that it dropped through the ceiling directly onto hapless Urvan. When I noticed it, I finished it off with my blade and it died just as any foe." He indicates to a spot by the fire where a still puddle lay still and deflated like a mostly transparent balloon that had burst.

Additionally, the storm seems to have broken with the sun. Iceman seems determined to hit the road and make up for lost time despite his visible weariness. "Let's search the rooms for valuables and then be off. This place stinks of death."

OOC: Due to the terrible night sleep, everyone that isn't dead will be considered Fatigued for the day. Fatigued characters take a –1 status penalty to AC and non-luck saving throws and also treat their Luck Ability modifier as if it were 1 point lower for the day. I may possibly also apply a -1 to some skill checks as appropriate.

Leyna is grouchy in the morning. The rough night of sleep - always on the brink of consciousness, never fully resting - has left her foggy and fatigued.

For breakfast, she repeats the process of mixing flour and water to make simple griddles cake over the fire. Hopefully there is something in the pantry that will improve their flavor. Preserves would be nice, but under the circumstances she's not holding her breath.

"Was there a trail on the ceiling?" she asks Iceman. "Are we sure that the creature did not emerge from inside Urvan? Perhaps it is part of its reproductive cycle."

Her tone is a curious mixture of bitter annoyance and professional curiosity.

She grabs a small pot from the kitchen and uses a spatula to scoop the remains of the puddle into the pot. She covers it with a lid and ties it shut with kitchen twine. "For study," she explains.

She does not relish the idea of plunging back into the wilds, where such puddles could be hiding on any leaf or branch, ready to drop onto unwary victims. Groaning, she stands.

Leyna pushes back on Iceman's eagerness to leave: "We must bury Rebecca and Urvan and the boy. Shallow graves, I'm afraid, but I would rather be buried than left to rot in the open. Sorry, Einar, I don't think I have the strength for a rhino."

She takes a moment to sort through the possessions of Rebecca and Urvan for things that might be useful for the survivors. Then she goes to the barn for a shovel to dig up the ground next to the other graves they saw the previous night. She might only go down six inches, but enough to get a layer of dirt over the deceased. She doesn't have the energy for anything more elaborate.

While Leyna prepares breakfast and plans on burying the fallen, Alonder is using his recovered upper strenght to try and get himself back on his feet. The chances of him walking or even standing up are slim at the moment, but he refuses to continue laying on the ground.

"I think it's safe to assume that whatever this is, it's a magical effect. I have no idea why I'm recovering, but if it had the same effect on humans than on a giant it can't be mundane in nature."

There is a strange feeling of guilt in his voice, as if he was ashamed to be the only survivor.